Anita+Roe


 * SUMMARY: "Anita," age 23, bled to death on May 11, 1971, after a legal outpatient saline abortion initiated in New York.**

"Anita" is one of the women Life Dynamics identifies on their "[|Blackmun Wall]" as having been killed by a legal abortion.

Anita was a 23-year-old mother of two when she  traveled from Massachusetts to New York to take advantage of the law legalizing abortion. She was 22 weeks pregnant.

On May 11, the doctor initiated a [|saline abortion] by injecting a strong sterile salt solution into Anita's uterus.The idea was that the fetus would inhale and swallow the fluid, which would cause massive internal hemorrhaging and death. this would then trigger labor.

Anita's doctor sent her home to expel the fetus. The next day, Anita was found unresponsive at her home. She was rushed to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. She had bled to death.

The 1970 liberalization of abortion had made New York an abortion mecca until the // Roe vs. Wade // Supreme Court ruling that abortionists could legally set up shop in any state of the union. In addition to "Anita," these are the women I know of who had the dubious benefit of dying from the newfangled safe-and-legal kind of abortion in pre- // Roe // New York:
 * Pearl Schwier, July, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
 * Carmen Rodriguez, July, 1970, salt solution intended to kill the fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
 * Barbara Riley, July, 1970, sickle-cell crisis triggered by abortion recommended by doctor due to her sickle cell disease
 * "Linda Michelle Hoffman", September, 1970, sent back to her home in Indiana with an untreated hole poked in her uterus
 * Maria Ortega, October, 1970, fetus shoved through her uterus into her pelvic cavity then left there
 * "Kimberly" Roe, December, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
 * "Amy" Roe, January, 1971, massive pulmonary embolism
 * "Andrea" Roe, January, 1971, overwhelming infection
 * "Sandra" Roe, April, 1971, committed suicide due to post-abortion remorse
 * Margaret Smith, June, 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
 * "Annie" Roe, June, 1971, cardiac arrest during anesthesia
 * "Audrey" Roe, July, 1971, cardiac arrest during abortion
 * "Vicki" Roe, August, 1971, post-abortion infection
 * "April" Roe, August, 1971, injected with saline for outpatient abortion, went into shock and died
 * "Barbara" Roe, September, 1971, cardiac arrest after saline injection for abortion
 * "Tammy" Roe, October, 1971, massive post-abortion infection
 * Carole Schaner, October, 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
 * "Beth" Roe, December, 1971, saline injection meant to kill fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
 * "Roseann" Roe, February, 1971, vomiting with seizures causing pneumonia after saline abortion
 * "Connie" Roe, March, 1972, cardiac arrest during abortion
 * "Julie" Roe, April, 1972, holes torn in her uterus and bowel
 * "Robin" Roe, May, 1972, lingering abortion complications
 * "Roxanne" Roe, May, 1972, given overdose of abortion sedatives
 * "Danielle" Roe, May, 1972, air in her bloodstream

We can see that starting in the 1940s, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality from abortion. The death toll fell from 1,407 in 1940, to 744 in 1945, to 263 in 1950. Most researches attribute this plunge to the development of blood transfusion techniques and the introduction of antibiotics. And as you can see from the graph below, the fall in abortion deaths was in place long before legalization. Legalization did nothing to change the number of deaths each year; the trend had been in place for decades. Learn more [|here]. 

LDI Sources: "Maternal Mortality Associated With Legal Abortion in New York State: Jul. 1, 1970 - Jun. 30, 1972;Berger, Tietze, Pakter, Katz, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 43:3, March 1974, 325

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